Here at Engadget HD, we've been watching TV for a long, long time, and we can't honestly say that we've ever viewed commercial time as content time. Nevertheless, MTV Networks is teaming up with Cadbury and DISH Network in order to launch its "first-ever advertiser-supported interactive television campaign." Available "exclusively" to DISH Network customers (a curse disguised as a blessing?), the campaign will debut during The N's reality series Queen Bees on July 11th at 9:00PM ET / PT. Put simply, it will present viewers with sets of questions to answer during the show (no, that's not distracting at all), and in the next commercial break, the poll results will be shown. According to the outfits involved, this is their attempt to "reinvent commercial time as content time" and "encourage viewer retention throughout the pod." We're curious -- does anyone at MTV / Cadbury / DISH actually believe this stuff, or does it just sound great on a conference call?

Considering that Disney just made headlines with its decision to go BD-Live on a few notable releases, it's no real surprise to see Warner Bros. following suit. At the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy conference, the studio's president of Technical Operations Darcy Antonellis asserted that it was "looking to launch web-enabled Blu-ray titles with BD-Live as early as the winter holidays." He elaborated by specifically mentioning "real-time viewing, library tools, a search engine, a recommendation tool with e-mail reminders, ringtones and wallpapers." Unfortunately, nary a clue was given as to what titles would be sporting what features, but it can't go and just reveal everything ahead of time, right?

LG's flat-panels end up in a-many of hotels, and it looks as if the outfit is hoping to end up in a whole lot more here soon. Today, the company has "expanded its long-time alliance with LodgeNet by agreeing to integrate LodgeNet and On Command interactive terminals with new hotel TVs." Essentially, the firm will be cranking out 11 new LG HD Built-in TVs, all of which include essential LodgeNet technology that enables hoteliers to map channels and the like from headend equipment. Five 32-, two 37-, and two 42-inch LCDs were introduced alongside a pair of 42-inch plasmas. We aren't told what venues will be snapping these up, but it's pretty safe to assume that any LodgeNet-equipped hotel will be giving 'em a glance.

If you enjoy juggling six screens at once, you should seriously considering switching to DirecTV or DISH Network. As the back-and-forth action between the two continues, DirecTV is serving up Wimbledon Interactive in order to provide viewers with a multi-screen montage of grass court action. The satcaster is teaming up once again with ESPN2 in order to "provide nearly 200 hours of live interactive coverage of the first five days of the 2008 Wimbledon Championship." The half dozen screens will include live ESPN2 coverage, a Wimbledon Extra for keying in on crucial matches / highlights, and shots from four other courts which can be expanded to full screen at the touch of a button. As you know, the first fuzzy ball flies on June 23rd.

Earlier this year, DirecTV showed up everyone else with its interactive, multi-screen coverage of the Masters. Now, however, DISH Network is stepping up to the tee by planning to offer ESPN's coverage of the U.S. Open in a similar fashion. From June 12 through 13, DISH subscribers will be able to view a multiple-screen showcase (dubbed Interactive TV) that will create a mosaic with ESPN's primary feed, a feed focusing on Tiger and Phil, an "Up Close" channel and a number of other specific feeds that hardcore golf lovers will surely be fascinated with. Your turn, DirecTV.

[Image courtesy of ESPN]

Update: Ah, so DirecTV is doing the same! Thanks m.e.

There's little doubt that interactive advertising has arrived, and while we just heard that Macrovision would be taking a look at DVR usage in order to better position its marketing attack, NBC Universal has now partnered up with DISH Network in order to do something similar. The agreement will provide "interactive trigger capabilities to NBC Universal's 14 television networks and 10 NBC owned-and-operated TV stations," and DISH subscribers who own a DVR will "able to use their remote controls to request more information from advertisers about their products or to receive coupons for various product discounts." As predicted, clicking on such an ad will take a viewer to a page to learn more about a given product, and once he / she is all done soaking it in, they can continue watching right where they left off. Of course, we're still curious as to the amount of people who will actually take a moment to distract themselves in this manner, but hey, it sounds goods in theory.

[Image courtesy of DBSTalk]

With Disney creating a dedicated lair for biometric testing of advertisements and Backchannelmedia pushing its own TV-to-internet ad platform, we aren't too surprised to see Macrovision teaming up with Sunflower Broadband to gauge the effectiveness of yet another advertising alternative. As part of the collaborative effort, EPG usage patterns of an "anonymous sample of Sunflower customers" will be collected and scrutinized in order to "gain insight into how consumers use i-Guide and interact with their DVR, on-demand services and in-guide advertising." In essence, the data will be used to "develop more effective consumer marketing tactics" and understand how subscribers "engage with interactive guide advertising." In-guide advertising? We hate to even think it, but really, what's next?

Sun Microsystems's pledge to aid the widespread development of interactive content on Blu-ray wasn't the only thing going down today at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco. Rather surprisingly, famed musician Neil Young announced plans to "release his entire music archive on Blu-ray discs that can be updated over the internet." Reportedly, the first installment of Young's archive will cover 1963 to 1972 and will be released as a ten-disc set this fall on Reprise / Warner Bros. Records, and subsequent archives will be released chronologically and "include some previously unreleased songs, videos, handwritten manuscripts and other memorabilia." Stressing Blu-ray interactivity, it was also noted that fans could download more songs, photos and tour information via their internet-connected decks. Needless to say, we're pretty stoked about the whole ordeal, and can only hope that more artists follow suit in serving up their work via Blu-ray.

[Thanks, JDS]

Today at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems professed its love for BDLive.com and the availability of the BDLive.com developers disc. Put simply, Sun -- a proud member of the Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors -- has teamed up with Related Content Database Inc. in order to create said website and offer devs, BD content owners and consumer electronics manufacturers "advanced network services focused on improving the overall BD Live user experience." Essentially, the web portal weds Sun's network.com infrastructure and RCDb's recently announced BD Live Platform to "enable the quick creation of device-appropriate features that provide a user-friendly DVD-like experience." If you're eager to know more, click on past the break.

ABI Research has just confirmed feelings that we've had for months: Blu-ray just isn't going to dominate the market until prices sink down from the stratosphere and players emerge that are fully-featured. A new study from the previously mentioned firm has suggested that we still have "12 to 18 months" before the BD market really kicks into gear, and it specifies that "fully-featured" decks need to come in at $200 or below before the general public will consider coughing up the cash required to make the jump to high-definition media. It's also noted that many are perfectly satisfied with the quality of DVD, and until prices make it manageable to switch, the outfit feels that huge chunks of consumers will simply stay put. Additionally, we're told that PS3s will "make up over 85-percent of the BD players in the field" during 2008, and we won't see Sony's console fall from the top until 2013 when the installed base of standalone decks / PC-based BD players overtake the installed base of PlayStation 3s. Yeah, you're hearing echoes on that last tidbit.

[Image courtesy of LA Times]

Just in case the studios didn't have enough development tools to kick out BD-Live discs, Related Content Database (RCDb) is making sure at least one other viable option is available. The firm's BD Live Platform, which is already being used by Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, promises to "save studios time and money in crafting advanced bonus features." Of course, the obvious result from this would be more BD-Live-enabled flicks hitting the shelves, but only time will tell if that will in fact be the case. Nevertheless, this software enables devs to "use a set of simplified encoding instructions to craft various interactive extras," which is obviously much easier than coding each project from scratch. Still, if the first few titles are any indication, we'd say a bit of effort should be allocated to improving user experiences before worrying over quantity.

[Via Video Business]

NAB Show 2008 is in full swing, and just in case you haven't heard, here's something worth taking a listen at. DTS has just revealed v1.6 of its DTS-HD Master Audio Suite toolset for Blu-ray Disc and DVD production, which includes "numerous highly anticipated file management features [along with] the public release of Dynamic Automation for DTS Express." The latter is an interactive secondary audio codec for BD, and according to Brian Towne, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Division, "the latest feature set empowers content creators with the freedom and flexibility to dynamically vary the primary audio volume, which is essential for picture-in-picture, alternate tracks, director commentaries and other interactive features for Blu-ray Disc." Best of all, DTS Express streams encoded for Blu-ray with MAS v1.6 are playable on Profile 2.0 and Profile 1.1 players, and it's available as a free upgrade (right now) for existing customers.

Interested in taking a peek at a few Christie DLP projectors, Stewart screens, Tannoy speakers and Bag End subs? What if a few HD flat-panels and a "4D" theater are throw in? Astoundingly enough, all of the aforesaid equipment and much, much more has been installed at the soon-to-open Newseum in Washington, D.C. Put simply, the venue "traces the history of news reporting from the 16th century to the present," and needless to say, it does so in impressive fashion. There's no telling exactly how many Benjamins Electrosonic burned through installing the plethora of high-end gear, but with 250,000 square feet of technology-laced area, we're thinking a trip (for "education," of course) may be in order.

[Via AboutProjectors]

The Blu-ray 2.0 spec (or BD Live) is just around the corner, and the "father of Java" thinks it won't disappoint. Sun Microsystems VP and fellow James Gosling calls it "mind-blowing" and we should see demonstrations of developers have achieved at the JavaOne conference in May. Top Tech News also quoted an analyst about the possibilities of the Blu 2.0 future, and what we could see this summer, from online chat with others watching the same movie, or the ability to offer downloads that re-edit a movie to block unwanted scenes. That all sounds nice, and we can't wait for the BD-J upgrades on our PS3's and new players from Panasonic and Sony, but we can't help wondering what it would have been like if someone launched online-capable HD players nearly two years ago. Yeah, that would've been sweet.

HD DVD fans have at least one more high profile release to look forward to, as German distributor Kinowelt is prepared to release Terminator 2: Ultimate HD-Edition (region free of course) March 20th. Produced by HDi (and Blu-ray) pioneers Imagion AG this release includes the directors cut of the film, with DTS-HD 7.1 audio and more than four hours of bonus material in a high quality SteelBook case. Expect this to be the triumphant example of HD DVD's advanced features and capabilities that American Gangster so sadly wasn't. Check out a list of features after the break or our hands-on from CES to learn more about the disc's interactive and online capabilities, and maybe a peek at the future of BD Live.